Quick Tip: How to Sell Your Home When Your Neighbors Are Too

Drive down one of the many residential streets in the nation and it is likely you will find one with multiple listings. It may look like a lot of possibilities if you are in the market for buying a home but if you are a homeowner on the other side of the fence, it can be frustrating to see so many signs in your own neighborhood.

Since there are many people who are selling their homes, it is increasingly important to make your home stand out. This is especially true if you and some of your closest neighbors are all selling homes at the same time. In this case, if you have innovative neighbors who are easy to work with, these multiple sales can work to your advantage – and theirs too.

Here are some tips to take advantage of this selling opportunity:

Set Up a Neighborhood Meeting
If you are friendly enough with the other sellers, invite them to your home for a little get-together. Let them know you are interested in working together to bring more interest from buyers to your neighborhood. Be prepared with some ideas of what you can do to make your area more interesting.

Offer A Homebuyers Event
Many homes are often opened up for a full-day “open house” event. You and your neighbors can set up a joint effort and create an open house for all homes on the same day. Create fliers and distribute them to local real estate agents as well as place them in highly visible public areas (ie: the grocery store, the mall, and the post office). Depending on how open minded your neighboring sellers are, you can make the event more enticing by offering free refreshments and other perks.

Accentuate the Neighborhood
By assembling the other sellers, you already give the public a true sense of community in your area. It can really help increase interest if you stress the other fine points your community and neighborhood have to offer. List the important information on your fliers about the area, such as the playgrounds, proximity to schools and other places of interest. If your neighborhood has any specific events it hosts, make sure you include a calendar of the goings-on on the flier. Any of the stand out points you can make about the area where your home is located can improve your chances of a sale. If the rest of your neighboring sellers are supporting each other's efforts, it can be easy to back up the claims.

Stage Your Homes
In an additional effort to make homes more appealing, have a professional designer attend one of your neighborhood meetings to discuss the most important things buyers are looking for when they see a home. There are many things you can do to “stage” your home so it will be more appealing to a potential homebuyer. If everyone is on the same page, the more interest you will be able to retain from house to house. Your potential buyer first visual impression of the house can often seal the deal early on.

While it may not be the easiest of tasks to get your fellow sellers together for such an event because of the competition side of selling a home, those who do work together can ultimately benefit greatly from the effort. It can be an extremely difficult time to sell your home with the current economic woes but doing everything you can to make your own home stand out in a crowded street will be a sure-fire way to start off on the right foot.

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Kelja #1

In this market, to sell your house cut the price to below the competitors. Too many are emotionally attached to their homes or, worse, simply underwater on the mortgage to understand this. Prices probably have another 10 to 25% to drop and that's if the economy recovers. If not, watch out.

I've seen too many people follow a dropping market all the way down. I know a couple who have a house they are trying to sell for the past year or more. The place was paid off so they weren't in any hurry. Initially they priced it at 2.3 million. After a year and a number of slow price reductions, it now sits at 1.6 million. A better than 30% haircut. It's a nice house but the new price isn't attracting any would be buyers.

When they first put it up for sale, I suggested a much lower price of 1.8 million, undercutting what was for sale in the neighborhood. They probably would have found a buyer at that price who would have thought the place was a bargain. No, they were adamant it was worth what they were asking.

My advice was free but they didn't take it and it cost them at least $200,000!

If you're selling, cut the price to where it's waaaaaay below the other priced for sale homes. Get out while you can!

I love the idea of a neighborhood open house event where buyers can go from one to the next and you could even have appetizers at one home, lunch at the next, dessert at the next to play it up. Staging is, of course, of paramount importance especially when you are competing for buyers with lots of other available homes in your neighborhood. Consult a professional Stager to see what you can do to get the best price and quickest sale for your property!